CLEVELAND, Ohio - Greater Cleveland is on a losing streak. And we're not talking sports. We're talking jobs. Since May, the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor metro area has lost more jobs than any large metro area in the country.

Greater Cleveland's percent of jobs lost -- 0.8 percent -- was not the largest in the nation. That distinction went to Decatur, Ill., where employment decreased 4.3 percent. Manhattan, Kan., which lost 3.5 percent of its jobs was second and Palm Coast, Fla., with a 3.4 percent employment decrease, was third.

However, Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor was the only one of 49 large metros - those with populations of at least one million -- that lost jobs between October 2012 and October 2013. The metro area includes Cuyahoga, Medina, Lake, Geauga and Lorain counties.

The local metro area's consistent decrease in employment seems to be concentrated in a few sectors, said Jacob Duritsky, managing director of research for Team Northeast Ohio, which is focused on job creation and retention in the region. The government sector, which has seen deep cuts in employment, is one. The other is professional and business services, a category that takes in a variety of businesses ranging from corporate headquarters to scientific, technical and management businesses.

Other sectors are showing growth, he said. For example, manufacturing jobs were up by 1,000.

"That is really the first increase in manufacturing that we have seen in the Cleveland (metro area)," Duritsky said.

He said taken as a whole, Northeast Ohio has seen job growth.

"If you look at the region other (metro areas) have seen job growth," Duritsky said. "Sandusky and Youngstown are up about 1,000 jobs. Akron and Canton are up about 2,000 each. If you take Cleveland out of the region, we are up about 5,000 jobs."

George Zeller of Cleveland, an economic research analyst, said while the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor metro was hard hit by a loss in government employment, such cuts were impacting most of the state.

"The government cuts are not only slowing down metro Cleveland's employment growth rate, they are also slowing down the employment growth rate in all Ohio ... (metro areas), except for Canton," he said in an email.

The state's growth rate was 0.5 percent. Dayton, which also lost 0.8 percent of its jobs, was the only other metro area in Ohio that included one of the state's largest cities, to post a decrease in employment.

Whether Greater Cleveland has been on a five-month or a six-month losing streak is debatable. Because of the government shutdown in October, the Labor Department canceled the release of the September metro area figures.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services did release the September figures. The Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor metro area lost 7,200 jobs, based on an analysis by Zeller. Since figures for the 372 other metros nationally aren't available, one can only guess where Greater Cleveland would have placed in the nation by losing 7,200 jobs.

Based on October's figures, and those from May to August, it is safe to assume that Cleveland's drop would have kept its first-place standing or at least placed it in the top three for job declines.

For example, the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor metro area lost 7,900 jobs between August 2012 and August 2013, and employment decreased by 4,500 between July 2012 and July 2013.

Todd Allyn Williams, a business and economics professor at Cuyahoga Community College, said people should focus less on the losing streak and more on how to end it. He said providing tax abatements and other incentives to attract businesses to the metro area is one way. Another effort would be coming up with ways to keep students who attend local colleges and universities in the area after graduation. Williams said this would create a more educated labor force, which is a sure way to draw businesses to the area.

He admits such approaches are long term.

"We have to be competitive," Williams said. "It is not enough that we have the arts and all these nice things to come to. What is the incentive for businesses to come here and see that they are able to make profits so that they can employ our population?"

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